I WILL URGENTLY BUY A BIOGRAPHY

The play I URGENTLY BUY A BIOGRAPHY started the activities of the project PORCELAIN IS A WOMAN, whose main theme of artistic research was the industrial heritage of the city — especially the production of porcelain on a large scale.

The now-defunct establishments that gave jobs and shaped the identity of the local community are becoming an excuse to create stories about people overlooked in the contemporary historical narrative of the city. The theatre wishes to restore the memory of the silent heroines of the local Wałbrzych community — the workers of the porcelain factories. We are witnessing how, after years of struggle with the negative effects of the economic downturn, Wałbrzych's identity is consolidating once again. In public narratives, one often returns to “black gold” — coal, on which the lion's share of the economy was based — the Wałbrzych Mining Memorial Monument was erected in the city and the post-mine areas were revitalized. On the other hand, there is rubble in the place of porcelain factories, and after all, porcelain production was the second driving force of the city's economy (the so-called “white gold of Wałbrzych”). There is a slow erasure of the memory of these spaces and, consequently, of the people who worked there.

I URGENTLY BUY A BIOGRAPHY is a show that tries in an artistic way to convey the atmosphere of work, splendor and decline of Wałbrzych porcelain factories. The performance was created as part of the activities of the Collective for the Island of Håøya — Julia Baran (photographers, participants of theatre workshops), Janina Chochlakiewicz (teacher, participants of theatre workshops), Joanna Łaganowska (actress), Nikola Olszak (theatre teacher), Tomasz Jękot (playwright, lit. director), Mikołaj Krzeszowec (actor), Seba Majewski (author of the text, artistic director) and Krzysztof Popiołek (director). The text is dedicated to Majka Parczewska and Janusz Byszewski — creators and curators of the Creative Education Laboratory at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw.

The authors would like to point out that the attempt to build the historical identity of Wałbrzych without taking into account the female narrative is simply incomplete and falsified. The so-called “second half of history” seems to remain inaccessible. The workers of the porcelain factories do not have their monuments, and their history directly disappears with the collapse of the buildings in which they worked professionally until recently. I URGENTLY BUY A BIOGRAPHY is a show whose task is to initiate a conversation about the lost achievements of the city. The show operates on the formula of mockumentary. Historical facts and myths collide here. The faded testimonies of the memory of the participants of the events in the factories became the canvas for capturing moments as important for the life of the city as the strikes in August 1980 or the economic transformation of the 90s. The artists, sensing the enormous social need to recover the history of “white gold”, want to create a space for the exchange of experiences of all those to whom the fate of Wałbrzych porcelain was close. For this purpose, a collection of “unwanted”, often incomplete porcelain from the home stock of Walbrzyshans was carried out, combined with listening to individual testimonies of former employees of the plants or their relatives.

The Drama Theater in Wałbrzych wants to rebuild the lost HER-story and make up for the huge lack of female representation in the story about the city. The project “PORCELANA IS A WOMAN” was also part of the celebrations of the Wałbrzych YEAR OF WOMEN 2021 and THE YEAR OF PORCELAIN 2025. All activities focused on the theme of porcelain are based both on the creation of artistically interesting repertoire proposals and the activation of the local community.

The performance “I URGENTLY BUY A BIOGRAPHY” was related to the series of activities of the international project “History of Disappearance — Scenographic Deconstruction of Memory”, based on the cooperation of the Norwegian Theatre Academy (NTA) /Østfold University College, the Jerzy Szaniawski Drama Theatre in Wałbrzych and the Metallurgy Museum in Chorzów and implemented by the Zbigwig Theatre Institute Raszniewski.